Bart

About Bart

Bart is an English and Dutch short form of Bartholomew or Bartholomeus. Its longer parent name means “son of Talmai.” The single-syllable form has a particularly strong American sporting association through Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr, whose career included five NFL championships.

Meaning and biblical background

Bartholomew developed from Greek Bartholomaios, representing an Aramaic expression meaning “son of Talmai.” Bart keeps the beginning of the longer name and gives it a compact form that can stand on its own.

Bartholomew is one of the twelve apostles in the New Testament. He has sometimes been identified with Nathanael, but that identification is not certain. The biblical connection belongs to the longer name behind Bart.

Bartholomeus is another form from which Bart is used, particularly in Dutch. The relationship is historical and established: Bart is not simply a new name assembled from a familiar English sound.

Bart Starr and the Packers

Bart Starr played for the Green Bay Packers from 1956 to 1971. Chosen in the seventeenth round of the 1956 draft, he did not immediately become the established starting quarterback, but eventually became central to Vince Lombardi’s championship teams.

He led the Packers to NFL titles in 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, and 1967. He was the league’s Most Valuable Player in 1966 and the Most Valuable Player of the first two Super Bowls.

One of his most famous moments came in the 1967 NFL Championship Game, remembered as the Ice Bowl. With Green Bay trailing late in the game, Starr led the final drive and scored the winning touchdown on a quarterback sneak.

The game’s severe cold became part of its lasting story. Starr’s decision to run the ball himself, with only seconds left, gave the name an enduring connection with a particularly memorable moment in American football.

A later coaching career

Starr returned to the Packers as head coach from 1975 to 1983. His association with the team therefore extended beyond his playing years into a different role on the sidelines.

Bart Simpson

Bart Simpson is another widely recognized bearer, the troublemaking son of Homer and Marge in The Simpsons. The animated family first appeared in shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987; the separate half-hour series debuted on December 17, 1989. This later television association followed Bart’s strongest year in American birth records by three decades.

Pronunciation and American popularity

Bart is pronounced BART, with one syllable. In accents that pronounce the r in car, the r is also heard here. Its brief sound is a marked contrast with the four-syllable English Bartholomew.

In the United States, Bart’s largest annual total for boys was 1,022 in 1959, when it ranked #249. No male entry appears in the published 2025 series. Its strongest American year fell during Starr’s playing career, although the statistics alone do not establish why families chose it.

How popular is Bart?

In 2025, Bart was not listed in the latest American name records. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for boys in 1880; its largest annual count was 1,022 in 1959. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.